Rowan University Rowan Digital Works Theses and Dissertations 8-6-2008 The reflection of the wastelands of aitingW for Godot and Endgame in electronic media Anya M. Cronin Rowan University Follow this and additional works at: https://rdw.rowan.edu/etd Part of the Theatre and Performance Studies Commons Recommended Citation Cronin, Anya M., "The reflection of the wastelands of aitingW for Godot and Endgame in electronic media" (2008). Theses and Dissertations. 766. https://rdw.rowan.edu/etd/766 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Rowan Digital Works. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Rowan Digital Works. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE REFLECTION OF THE WASTELANDS OF WAITING FOR GODOT AND ENDGAME IN ELECTRONIC MEDIA By Anya M. Cronin A thesis Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Master of Arts in Theatre Degree of The Graduate School at Rowan University August 6, 2008 Approved by Dr. Elisabeth Hostetter Date Approved ,~7 © 2008 Anya M. Cronin ABSTRACT Anya M. Cronin THE REFLECTION OF THE WASTELANDS OF WAITING FOR GODOT AND ENDGAME IN ELECTRONIC MEDIA 2007/08 Dr. Elisabeth Hostetter Master of Arts in Theatre The Reflection of the Wastelands of Waiting for Godot and Endgame in Electronic Media is a study of the wasteland settings of Waitingfor Godot, Endgame, and the Internet according to the method of play analysis established by Bruce McConachie in American Theatre in the Culture of the Cold War: Producingand Contesting Containment, 1947- 1962. Chapter One establishes my justification, methodology, structure, and survey of literature. Chapters Two-Four explore isolation and language, magic, and death in regard to Godot, Endgame, and the Internet, respectively. Chapter Four also briefly concludes the work. This thesis invites spectators to examine Waiting for Godot and Endgame in regard to electronic media, which helps us to understand both Beckett's work and electronic media in a scholarly, theatrical context that discrete analyses could not singularly achieve. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thank you to my mom, Anna Cronin, and grandmom, Anna Bright, for everything. I'll love you forever! You are magnificent. Thank you, Dr. Elisabeth Hostetter, Dr. Phillip Graneto, and Lane Savadove for your incredible insights. You are remarkable. Thank you, Cynthia Corle, for taking such amazing care of my family and being so generous. You are a true friend to us. Thank you, Carmella Conn, for being so sunny. You are wonderful. I'll never forget any of you! ii DEDICATION To my Mom and Grandmom (both named Anna)-I will love you until the ends of time. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements ii Dedication iii CHAPTER PAGE 1. Introduction 1 Justification 1 Methodology 5 Structure 9 Survey of Literature 10 2. Waitingfor Godot 15 Introduction 15 Language and Isolation: Vladimir and Estragon as Antonymic Forces 16 The Magical Wasteland: Godot's Blooming Tree as a Promising Event 23 Death: Vladimir and Estragon's Canceled Suicides 29 3. Endgame 38 Introduction 38 Language and Isolation: Nagg and Nell in Ashcans and The Past 39 The Magical Wasteland: Outside Hamm's Castle and Cold Nothingness 47 Death in Hamm's Realm: Economy and Poison in Endgame 54 4. The Internet 63 iv Introduction 63 Language and Isolation: The Internet's Circuitous E-mail 65 The Magical Wasteland: Nebulous Internet 70 Death: Internet Ghost Town 77 Conclusion 84 Bibliography 87 CHAPTER 1 Introduction Justification Godot is and is not God; consequently, the universe is and is not a closed one.... [B]y the strange twilight-dialectics, this is and is not a living world. It is a zombie life-in-death or death-in-life territory, fauna and flora, an almost Lovecraftian fantasy, or a surreal limbo between being and non- being. With obvious reference to Dante's Purgatory...it is an inverted Purgatory, tending downward into hopelessness. (Darko Suvin 130) This thesis explores the ways Samuel Beckett's literary wastelands, the bleak, barren places of Waiting for Godot and Endgame, resemble the Internet in terms of the intangible, enigmatic medium of electronic discourse. It provides a new lens through which to view the wastelands of Waiting for Godot and Endgame. The term "wasteland" derives from the long literary tradition of blighted, wasted kingdoms featured in countless works from Sophocles' Oedipus Rex, to Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte D 'Arthur, to T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land, though in this thesis "wasteland" specifically indicates the settings of Godot and Endgame and the Internet. Any place that evokes isolation, emptiness, and sterility can be considered a wasteland, though perhaps the Internet holds a true, modern claim. We lack the aid of our bodily senses online, except for sight. We can see computer generated text online and fluorescent graphics glimmer. Our thoughts engage and explore an abstract plane much like Beckett's austere and thought-provoking wastelands in Godot and Endgame. We travel to the wastelands of Godot and Endgame, and these numinous places appeal to us. To label a wasteland "appealing" may appear strange, but Beckett's poetic lines imbue these devastated physical and emotional places with mythic allure. This same allure draws billions of people to electronic media, which promises to end loneliness and transform users. Godot unfolds in a haunting and barren setting. Yet Godot tempts the audience with a Promethean glint of anticipation. The lone tree on Godot's country road blooms leaves between acts. Vladimir is taken with the spectacle and demands that Estragon "Look at it" (Godot 440). Estragon refuses to believe the tree has changed. Undaunted, Vladimir sees the surfacing of the wasteland's buried transformative capabilities. "But yesterday evening it was all black and bare. And now it's covered with leaves" (Godot 440). Vladimir will wait for Godot. Eric Bentley, writing "The Talent of Samuel Beckett" in Ruby Cohn's Casebook on Waiting for Godot, argues that waiting characterizes "a rebuff to desolation" (66). Bentley compares the characters of Godot to those who endured the Holocaust. He writes, "the Auschwitz prisoners hoped, however improbably, to get out: it is not certain that Godot won 't come" (Bentley 66). Vladimir and Estragon communicate. They try to break despair with uncertain partnership, but Godot dramatizes people in sets of two who are not actually partners. The characters cannot meld, but they do collude. "Un-communication," a discourse marked by apparent communication devoid of actual understanding, bars the characters' way. Each character fumbles in choppy, pained solitude. Thomas Cousineau writes about 2 this lonely wilderness's lack of exchange in Waiting for Godot: Form in Movement. He writes that "in [Beckett's] director's notebook for the Schiller Theater production of Godot, Beckett makes clear that the second most important nonaction of the play, after Godot's failure to appear, is the lack of response to appeals for help" (Cousineau 55). The characters attempt to help one another, but they simultaneously reject assistance. Again, Cousineau explains that even "the opening scene of the play immediately situates us in a world where human effort is highly ineffectual" (55). The characters of Godot persistently fail. Estragon approaches Lucky in an unsuccessful act of generosity. Estragon tries to swab Lucky's eyes, but Lucky kicks Estragon, and Pozzo chides, "I told you he didn't like strangers" (Godot 400). Vladimir, Estragon, Pozzo, and Lucky find a cohort or an audience, even a potential soul mate, if you will, and then rebuff each other in an ever-growing cycle of misunderstanding. Their discourse is fruitless. Whenever a character steps into the action, he is quite alone and receives no empathy from his fellows. Everyone is isolated. Pozzo's attempted exit reflects this, and Beckett's stage directions explain the action: Pozzo extricates himself with cries of pain and crawls away. He stops, saws the air blindly, callingfor help. Vladimir, propped on his elbow, observes his retreat. (Godot 461-462) Endgame emanates more cheer than Godot. In Endgame all is lost. Hamm's storage of goods dwindles. Hamm and Clov eat, wear, and use the last non-renewable resources. Nevertheless, Endgame's wasteland's irrevocability frees the characters to help one another. In the past Hamm dispelled his loneliness by adopting Cloy. Beckett hints at Hamm and Cloy's foster father-son relationship near the end of the play. Hamm speaks of this bond and ponders the isolation looming before him. He anticipates desertion, saying: I'll have called my father and I'll have called my... (he hesitates) ... my son. And even twice, or three times, in case they shouldn't have heard me, the first time, or the second. (Pause.) (Endgame 69) Beckett's characters attempt to allay isolation. Their endeavors reveal the extent of their despair. Isolation threatens many people. Yet some choose to face their loneliness. They seek electronic discourse for comfort. But can you warmly embrace a computer? Writing "The Internet? Bah!" for Newsweek, Clifford Stoll asks readers to "discount the fawning techno-burble about virtual communities" (41). To Stoll, loneliness is wed to electronic discourse. He asks, "what's missing from this electronic wonderland? Human contact" (Stoll 41). What if you don't know anyone who can discuss an esoteric topic you are taken with? Locating a person in actual life who can discuss your deep interests would please you. Finding someone who shares your passion is difficult, especially for students who require information to fulfill their studies and live at a distance from their school or university. The Internet shares many qualities of Beckett's wastelands, because people seek longer and longer hours online in reaction to their lonely and disconnected existence.